


The Winter (Asshole) Soldier

by RavenpuffWrites



Series: Let the Sun Come Streaming In [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bruce and Peter are lowkey the only reason Tony manages to survive when Pepper is not around, Fluff, Instead he makes magnets because haha sleep nope never heard of her, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Tony Stark Needs Sleep, Trans Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 19:48:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18708805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenpuffWrites/pseuds/RavenpuffWrites
Summary: As it turns out, there are magnets that can stick to Bucky's arm. They just have to be hand made.





	The Winter (Asshole) Soldier

When Steve first brought up the idea of wanting to do something to make Bucky’s arm seem less like a weapon and more like a part of him (because the more he regained his memories, the more Bucky seemed to hate the damn thing), Tony was mostly not paying attention to the conversation. It was morning, and by all standards for most of the group still fairly early, and besides Peter who had been happily chatting to anyone who would listen about his friends and everything he managed to get tied up in over the week, they were all not completely awake. And Tony, who was going on his third night now without much sleep, was focused almost solely on his coffee, and trying to find yet another method to help him finally sleep. So when Steve finally walked in looking like he hadn’t slept and makes himself the biggest cup of coffee he can before slumping in a chair next to Natasha, Tony felt for him really. But he doesn’t have enough energy in him to really care as Steve explains Bucky had another bad night, and it all came back to that fucking arm that was a permanent reminder Hydra and now Steve wished he had some way to make the arm more personal, to soften out the edges. Bruce and Tony had been working on trying to figure out a way to build a better replacement after they figured out how to remove the first one without hurting Bucky more than he already had been when the arm was attached, but they still had no idea how long that would take. The arm was fused into Bucky’s shoulder, and getting it out was going to be extremely dangerous and difficult. So they were still a while out.

And Steve just wanted to be able to do something, anything to be able to help Bucky out now.

There are a few suggestions thrown around on what can be done, but Tony doesn’t hear a single one until Sam says “Well you could always just stick magnets to it, you know since it’s made of fucking metal and everything.”

From across the table, Clint smirked. “Then it’s just the highest spot of honor to display stuff when one of them does something worth sharing.”

“You mean like when Steve gets his ass kicked taking on enemies twice his side?”  Sam said dryly, and Clint only smirked wider behind his coffee cup.

“Sometimes a little public shame is good for the soul. Besides, he can hang other things there too. My kids have always been fond of displaying their artwork on the fridge. And he’s probably at least as good as them at drawing.”

“If Barnes is the fridge and Steve’s the kid, then who is the parent that gets to hang the art?” Sam asked, raising an eyebrow at Clint, a shit eating grin on his face because he is entirely too amused by this turn of events.

Clint answers without even thinking. “Natasha obviously. Considering how often she’s dragging him out of trouble.”

“If the title of parent just comes from saving his ass, wouldn’t that make all of Steve’s parents?” Natasha asked, raising one eyebrow at Clint, a sly smile on her face, “I’m pretty sure it was part of signing up to be an Avenger. Kick ass, save the world, keep Steve Rogers from being a complete idiot and killing himself.”

Steve sighed heavily as Clint and Sam both dissolved into laughter unable to hold themselves together any longer, muttering something about how “kids these days have no respect for their elders”, which only made the pair laugh harder. Steve downed the rest of his coffee before he stood up, making another cup for himself and one for Bucky before he disappeared out the door and back to their shared apartment.

The conversation drifted back to other topics as the rest of the team finished up their breakfast and headed out to their various activities that day. No one mentioned the magnets, or finding a solution for Bucky’s arm after Steve left. And yet still when Tony finally entered his lab half an hour later, he found the idea was still lingering in the back of his mind. He tried to shove it away for most of the day, not wanting to waste time on what had mostly been just a dumb joke. For the most part, he’s successful. It helps when Peter comes up and asks Tony to help him with something he’s working on for school. For a while, he manages to forget the idea altogether.

That night though, when he still couldn’t sleep for the fourth night in a row, Tony grabbed another coffee from the 24 hours Starbucks in the tower, and he headed down to his lab just to see if it would even theoretically be possible for a magnet to stick to Bucky’s arm.

* * *

After a few hours of research to find something that would stick to the metal in the arm, Tony crashes on the couch he keeps in the lab for these specific purposes just as the sun starts to rise.

When he wakes up, there’s a warm cup of coffee sitting on the table by his head. Bruce and Peter are already hard at work on their own projects, and when Tony finally forces himself to stand up and walk back over to his station, he’s shocked to find the answer to his search last night was sitting right in front of him. He turns his head to look at Bruce and then Peter about to ask why, but while Peter is completely engrossed in his work Bruce looks up just long enough to give Tony this soft half smile and just like that Tony gets it.

The smile he gives Bruce in return is maybe the first real one he had given anyone in weeks, and even if it was only a small one it still felt like progress. Tony turns back to his screen with his heart feeling just a little bit lighter, and thinks to himself that just maybe tonight he would be able to sleep for more than a few hours and everything would be okay.

* * *

By that afternoon Tony has a small hoard of magnets in various shapes, sizes, and colors, ones that you can join together to make any letter or shape that you wanted. This way, Steve or Bucky or whoever else wound up getting their hands on the magnets could use them to put whatever they wanted on the arm. They come in a range of colors too, from soft pastels to bright neon’s that glowed in the dark, so that Bucky would always have an option no matter what mood he was in. And they all were stored inside a soft but durable pouch Peter had made to keep them safe (the project he had so intently been working on when Tony first woke up). It looked safe, unassuming, and could easily slide into a pocket without any amount of fuss. And when the magnets were sealed inside, they didn’t make a sound no matter how much you shook them up.

It was perfect.

The only thing there was left to do was to deliver the magnets to Steve, and if he got lucky, get away without being questioned because if Steve even got a whiff of Tony’s sleep problems, he wouldn’t let it go until he found out the cause. And Tony really didn’t feel like trying to explain whatever the hell was going on in his head and with his emotions to anyone. Especially not to Captain fucking America. Though that would be better than having to explain it to Steve Rogers.

With any luck though the magnets would provide enough distraction to keep anyone from asking questions. If not, well he could (hopefully) count on F.R.I.D.A.Y to provide a fake emergency if things started to fall apart. It wouldn’t be the first time his AI had saved him just in the nick of time. It provided Tony a certain amount of comfort.

Which is maybe why when he reaches their shared common area and find Bucky and Steve passed out on the couch together, Bucky’s metal arm dangling over the side and all on its own, Tony decides to have a little fun.

After all, what’s a better way to explain to the soldiers what the magnets did than to leave a message before they could ever wake up.

* * *

Tony’s just about finished with the magnets with Natasha and Clint came walking in together, signing back and forth furiously in a heated argument about something. Which comes to halting stop the minute they spot Tony.

He was crouched beside the couch hovering dangerously close to a sleeping Bucky, who was laying with his head in the lap of an also sleeping Steve Rogers. For a minute they both stared in confusion trying to piece together what is happening. Natasha steps forward first to get a better look and raises one eyebrow at Tony as she asks

“Why does Barnes’ arm say ‘Asshole’ on it?”

“I made magnets,” Tony replied instantly, holding up the bag of the extra magnets for Natasha to see with a smirk on his face. “Steve wanted to have something to make the arm more personal, so I decided to help out. I even wrote Barnes’ name to show how they work.”

A beat of silence passed before Clint started to laugh, and Natasha sighed exasperated, muttering something quietly about “being stuck with a group of five-year-old boys”, even though there was a slight smile on her face that gave away her own amusement.

“I can’t believe you actually went through with making those,” Clint said after he had calmed down, moving closer so that he could get a better look at the magnets. “One hell of a task just for a stupid prank.”

Tony shrugged like it was nothing, an easy smile on his face as he stood up from beside the couch, leaving the bag of extra magnets on the coffee table where the super soldiers would be sure to see it as soon as they woke up.

 “A few hours are well worth the payoff to see Cap’s reaction.”

If Natasha and Clint shared a look that said they knew there was more behind Tony’s actions than he was saying, neither of them decided to mention it.

* * *

“Bucky, why does your arm say asshole on it?”

“Because he’s an asshole?”

“Fuck off Sam.”

“He’s not wrong though.”

“Traitor.”

“You’re my asshole though”

“…”

“Steve did you just really write ‘Mine’ on Bucky's arm?”

“Yes”

“You jealous fuck.”

“You love me.”

“For some reason or another.”

* * *

“Seriously though where did these magnets come from?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Marvel fic, so I apologize if things are slightly ooc, I haven't even seen all the movies but I had this idea and wanted to share (also this is not canon compliant past The Winter Soldier. I also have no idea really what I'm doing, I just wanted to write a fic)  
> This is the first in a series of fics I plan to make about Bucky's magnets, as well as some other ideas dropped in between.  
> It was all inspired by this post on Tumblr: https://sov-ja.tumblr.com/post/144668888363/steve-has-a-lot-of-magnetic-letters-and-he-is-not  
> So, expect to see those come up at some point.  
> Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed and if you want to read more make sure to subscribe to the series


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